Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Some historians see the decline of the Ottoman Empire starting in 1683. We know it was doomed by going into WWI with Germany. The Ottoman Caliphate needed the acquisition of new wealth and saw the agriculture, manufacturing and commerce of the European countries as a way to get this. They had the Balkans of SE Europe and the Near East since the 14th Century which included Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro. The Ottomans didn't have their own financial system. They had to borrow money which started at a decent 4%-5% but must have risen. On top of it they ran up huge debts. Sound familiar? A war they thought would be short and lots of debt spelled their doom.

Germany in 1913 was part of an era of arranged marriages in Europe. This country had a "solid, prosperous, advanced culture and population". Most of Europe, including Germany was ruled by a monarchy. Germany was under the Kaiser Wilhelm. Then on the 28th of June theArchduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and his wife, Sophie in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovenia were assassinated. They had been shot by Garrilo Princip, one of 6 Bosnian-Serb assassins. Bosnia was then a part of the Ottoman Empire. Austria-Hungary had the mandate to occupy and administer Bosnia, but the Ottoman Empire had, since an 1878 treaty of Berlin, sovereignty. Germany decided to fight over territory in the Balkans. Austria-Hungary was in competition with Serbia and Russia over the same territory. By July 28, 1914 most of the world was involved in World War I. The Germans thought for sure that they would have a short war that they would win over this and that they could finance it with post war reparations. From a position that both thought the other wouldn't fight over it, they created the "Great War." It is figured that about 9 million soldiers died in this war. It was the end of the German, Russian, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires.

In Germany a month before the war started in June 1914 a 1 lb loaf of bread cost 13 cents.
WWI started July 28, 1914.
1916 it cost 19 cents
1918 it cost 22 cents. WWI ended November 11, 1918 and Germany lost WWI.
1919 it cost 26 cents
1920 it cost $1.20
1921 it cost $1.35
1922 it cost $3.50
1923 it cost $700 in about January
1923 it cost $1,200 in about May, 5 months later
1923 it cost $2,000,000 September
1923 it cost $670,000,000 October: Finally wide-spread riots broke out.
1923 it cost $3,000,000,000 (that's billions) November
1923 it cost $100,000,000,000,000 middle of November (trillions) This was the financial end for Germany

What had happened? On October 11, 1922, the German Central Bank and the German Treasury decided to "jump start" a stagnant economy. Earlier they knew they needed easier money, so using the idea of more is better, they created more and more money. The economy was still at a standstill so they kept on making money more available. Nothing happened for the best. Then prices exploded but the shoppers were staying home. So they devalued the mark. They made 2 billion marks to a dollar.

In the beginning in 1913, 4.2 marks equaled $1. By November 1923 you needed 4.2 trillion marks to get $1. This is what is called-hyper-inflation and it destroyed their country and almost the whole world. The middle-class was destroyed. Few people owned their own homes. Almost everyone rented, so thousands became homeless. Savings were worthless. Pensions were meaningless. People demanded pay twice a day to fight the inflation. They heated their homes by burning paper money. They shopped with a wheel-barrel full of worthless paper money. They could not pay a dowry for their daughters, so there went marriages. Social morality died. The roar of the roaring 20's began to rumble. Sin was in.

Adolf Hitler began a ten year effort to power by working on all the unhappy people living under this chaos and street rioting who saw no way out and needed somebody to blame. Thus Germany's Jews, the ultimate scapegoat, were gassed and we lost 6 million from all over Europe. He was born in Austria and was a German politician and became the leader of the Nazi Party. He came into power in 1933 and remained till the end of the WWII in 1945. He started his life by being a German soldier in WWI as a Corporal. It was in July 1919 that he infiltrated the German Workers Party and started his evil intentions.

We Americans need to take a lesson from this history. Evidently creating more money as we have recently done is not the best method. We have had unemployment for 4 years and are not recovering as quickly as our government expected. It leads to unhappy people who start the blame game. We don't want it to lead to a Hitler-type situation. Already I see Israel, a Jewish state, being blamed by Europe through the decisions in the UN. They say in song that "money makes the world go round." We need to take better care with ours. We don't want to turn into the Ottoman Empire as we owe so much money to China already.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot“Today the Jews are not the Israelites praised by Allah, but the descendants of the
Israelites who defied His word. Allah was angry with them and turned
them into monkeys and pigs….There is no doubt that the battle in which
the Muslims overcome the Jews [will come]....In that battle the Muslims
will fight the Jews and kill them." —Muslim Brotherhood Spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi. So proclaimed the head Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood religious leader who has been living in Qatar as an honored guest. What kind of man would utter such nonsense? One that has been programmed to hate Jews to the point of being an utter fool. To even have the gall to say that your beloved prophet, whose message you follow turned the people of the book into monkeys and pigs is dishonoring him. How can you follow such a man who states that Allah would turn a people into animals? That's the stuff of fairy tales. Come to think of it, it could be found in the Arabian Nights. Mohammad came from a tribe that was pagan. Arabia at the time in 570-632 CE was a mishmash of cultures and religions. He belonged to the Quraysh tribe, based in Mecca that was a center of trade and pilgrimage. His tribe were traders with the pilgrims. The Ka'bah housed many pagan idols, the main one being the image of the god Hubal. Local gods of all the tribes in the area were represented in the shrine along with other idols with trees and stones nearby. One of the gods was called "Allah" and may have been a tribal god of the Quraysh. They also had 3 goddesses, al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat. Blood feuds were frequent in this land, and the people became harsh and unyielding. Women were chattel, girls were married off at the age of 7 or 8 and female infanticide was common. Women were regarded as a financial liability.

Of course Jews didn't all convert to Islam. Many were living in Saudi Arabia in Jewish tribes that were in existence then in the 600's CE. Mohammad came along and it was either his way or the highway. Many Jews were beheaded because they said they were happy being Jewish and didn't want to convert. I suppose others saw what happened and did convert. So we'll find, no doubt, that some Muslims were originally Jewish. Mohammad did a number on copying his new religion from Judaism. The resemblances between the two are obvious. 1. Both have systems of religious law. 2. Both have daily prayers and dietary laws.3. Both are purely monotheistic faiths.Jews do not think of Muslims as idolators. In the Middle Ages Jews thought that if a Jew was forced to embrace Islam, they should not suffer martyrdom as by doing this he would not be forced to worship idols. The main differences between Judaism and Islam is that Islam, like Christianity, while accepting G-d's revelation to Israel, believes that the Torah has been superseded. Islam believes that Mohammad is the true prophet and the Koran the new sacred book. Judaism says that the Torah is true for all time and has not been and never will be substituted by another faith. Judaism spread through the family's growth. Jews have not proselytized since the days of the Hasmonean rulers around Judea, the Galilee and Idumea. In the 1st century CE the royal house of Adiabene became Jews. The Roman Empire experienced people converting to Judaism like Aquila, and Flavius Clemens. The Khazarian Empire near Russia in the 8th and 9th Century CE listened to speakers of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Their Royal House chose Judaism and did not require others to join them Sammy Davis, black singer and dancer in USA converted to Judaism on his own. Our response was, "Oy vey! Does he know what he's asking for? Black and Jewish? He doesn't have enough problems already?" On the other hand, Islam spread by Arab conquests. Judaism rejects totally the religion of Islam as a false religion. However, we feel we can learn from their Islamic teachers. Our rabbinic doctrine of the righteous of the nations, who keep the 7 laws of the sons of Noah which are against theft and murder and other things, have a share in the world to come. If Muslims live up to the highest demands of their own faith they belong among the righteous of the nations.For us Jews, the Jewish community looks disapprovingly at someone who embraces Islam. They are considered to be a meshummad, a renegade, who has forsaken the truth and has been disloyal to the people of Israel, the Jews. The Torah was written by Moses from G-d in about 2,000 BCE. Mohammad came along in 570 CE and died 632 CE. Mohammad changed the characters in retelling the story of Abraham to star Ishmael instead of Isaac. This is a big difference. It's like making the villain the hero. Mohammad borrowed a great deal of our Torah characters for his Koran. They also gave Abraham a new job as being the builder of the Ka'ba in Saudi Arabia. Noah, Moses, David, Solomon and Jesus are among other prophets who were the forerunners of Mohammad. They have taken to revering tombs in Israel as theirs. The mosque on the Temple mount in Jerusalem they say was the "farthest mosque" reached by Mohammad on his famous night journey and now is regarded as their holy place where Jews cannot pray. Their legends absorbed much material from the Jewish Midrash..

. When Jews resisted in converting to Islam, Mohammad inserted many lines divulging his developed hatred for people who didn't idolize him and follow him willingly. That's where we see the commandment of killing a Jew who most likely will be under a rock or behind a tree. (That tells you what the environment in Saudi Arabia was like; made up of rocks, boulders and trees. Where were buildings?) I ask why we weren't hiding in a building? It also tells you that if a Jew was still in the neighborhood, they had to keep their Jewishness a secret.

Jews living in Arab countries lived as 2nd class citizens, however, as dhminnis under more extreme penalizing laws, like paying more taxes than others. Dhminnis meant the people of the book, protected but guilty people, differing from Hindus and Buddhists who were later awarded dhminni status. Their Islamic law said that Jews and Christians were not equals of Muslims. There was an Abdullah bin Ubayy who pleaded with Mohammad for the lives of a Jewish tribe but instead, Mohammad grew angrier. He said he had a revelation and put them under a curse and said that most could not be trusted. Jews were able to live in Arab countries up till the creation of Israel and then had to leave. Most all removed to Israel. Resource: Muslim Brotherhood Charter: http://www.standwithus.com/app/inews/view_n.asp?ID=1757Book: What Does Judaism Say About...? by Louis Jacobs on Islam The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia http://www.kosherjudaism.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=458Book: The Truth about Muhammad by Robert Spencer

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
Right now Muslims are celebrating Eid al Adha. It is also called Feast of the Sacrifice. It is said to be Islam's most important holiday that started Thursday evening and lasts 4 days. Assad had agreed to keep the truce for the 4 days, but he broke it by bombing a building in the Damascus suburb and killing 8 people. He didn't keep his word.

What is this holiday of Eid al-Adha about, anyway? It's about Abraham sacrificing his son, but in the Muslim version, the son is Ishmael, not Isaac. Mohammad, the prophet of Islam, was born in 570 CE and died in 632. He had been exposed to hearing stories told by Jews in Saudi Arabia and adopted many of ours. In his version, Abraham was about to sacrifice Ishmael, but in the Jewish version, which is about 2,000 years older than Mohammad's, it was Isaac.

Jews have Abraham born in the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE. This is a big difference as in the Jewish version, Ishmael was the first child of Hagar the Egyptian, the handmaiden of his wife, Sarah. Abraham circumcises Ishmael at age 13. Ishmael was so mean and unruly to his baby brother, Isaac that Sarah had asked Abraham to send them both away, which in our version, he did. Ishmael would have been older than 13. We understood they went off to live in Paran. He joined Isaac in burying Abraham. His daughter married Esau. It's presumed that Ishmael was the father of the Arabs.

The Muslim version has Abraham bringing Hagar and baby Ishmael to Saudi Arabia from Canaan. It was then, as the story goes, a dry, rocky and uninhabited place. At the time Isaac hadn't been born yet and has him married to Hagar. He was going back to Canaan alone and Hagar asked him if she was left to die. He answers saying it was G-d telling him to do this, and he leaves her and the boy a lot of food and water, but they are hungry and thirsty after 2 days. She prays and water gushes up by Ishmael's feet. Other accounts have the angel Gabriel striking the earth causing the spring to flow. This Zamzam Well lets them trade water with nomads for food and supplies.

Years later Abraham is told to return from Canaan to build a place for worship next to this well. He and Ishmael build the Kaaba, which became a gathering place. Ishmael became a prophet and "gave the nomads of the desert his message of submission to G-d. Mecca became a thriving desert city and center for trade thanks to the Zamzam Well".

Abraham was commanded by G-d to sacrifice his only son. (This is part of both Islam and Judaism traditions.). In the Islamic version, they have Satan tempting Abraham and his family by trying to dissuade them from carrying out G-d's commandment and Abraham "Ibrahim" driving Satan away by throwing pebbles at him. To remember rejecting Satan, stones are thrown at symbolic pillars signifying Satan during the Hajj rites. At age 13 when Abraham was 99 years old, G-d tested their faith in public. Abraham had a dream to sacrifice his son. He asked Ishmael for permission and he gave it. He cut Ishmael's throat while blindfolded so he didn't have to see him die, and found he was unharmed. Instead, he found a dead ram which had been slaughtered. Abraham had passed the test by his willingness to follow G-d's command. As a reward for this sacrifice, God granted Abraham the good news of the birth of his 2nd son, Isaac. Muslims commemorate this ultimate act of sacrifice every year during Eid al-Adha.

We Jews have a different take on the story. Isaac, circumcised at 8 days, was saved by divine intervention with G-d telling Abraham that he didn't have to sacrifice Isaac. He was just being tested in obeying G-d. Evidently in those days sacrificing people had been going on. This put an end to Abraham's followers accepting human sacrifice. Our story continues.

Isaac grew up to marry Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel and they had twin sons, Jacob and Esau. Jacob received Isaac's death blessing instead of Esau due to his bad eyesight and Jacob tricking him. Esau was the older twin by a few minutes but was wild. The twins became enemies because of this and Esau sought to kill Jacob. Jacob had to get out of town and went to Haran. 20 years later Esau received him affectionately. Jacob's name was changed to Israel and Esau was connected with Edom. Esau was connected with villainy and violence, and a coarse materialist. This is why Jacob had to pretend to be Esau to receive his father's important inherited blessing.
In the United States Muslims will wear traditional clothing, pray, make pilgrimage to the Kabba in Saudi Arabia, have special foods, and give gifts. The USA has a special stamp commemorating this holiday "aimed to highlight the business, educational and social contributions that
Muslims made in the United States".

Jews do not have a holiday in commemorating this story, though it is an important part of our religious history and we are very familiar with it. Abraham is for us, the Father of Judaism as he broke away from Ur and went to Canaan to keep his family believing in one G-d. He started monotheism. He's the one who broke the idols in his father's idol shop.

The people of Gaza slaughter animals for the holiday themselves in duplicating Abraham's sacrificing an animal instead of his son. The story on Haaretz tells about a cow that tried to get away.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
Some of my very distant relatives are Native Americans. I found this out through genetic testing. My father carries genes from his father and he carries them from his father and so on down the line of men. This is the Ydna that tells what haplogroup they are. Our haplogroup has turned out to be Q1b1a, and we are Jewish. This little twig of the Q branch happens to be 5% of the male Jewish population of today. My grandfather lived in Lithuania and immigrated to Idaho, then moved onto Portland, Oregon. I have reason to believe that his ancestors were in Lithuania in Telsiai, and possibly before in Poland for a long long time.

How did we connect with Native Americans? It happened pretty far back. Q haplogroup that we came from originated in Siberia, Mongolia and parts of Turkey. Q's came off of an even older branch called P (M45). Native Americans that match with us are Q1a3a, and Q1a3a1.

The Q's originated 17,000 to 22,000 years ago in Central Asia, the Indian sub continent, and Siberia. Q1's (P36.2) and Q M242 are the tags given to Q's. There are more than a dozen subclades, or twigs off the Q branch, which we Jews and the Native Americans are. This happened way before Abraham. The Jewish calendar only goes back 5772 years ago.

I remember being in a restaurant a long time ago and seeing a very pretty olive skinned lady wearing a few Native American pieces of jewelry talking to a friend and she was also wearing a star of David. She was saying that they were also connected to Jews. This was way before the entrance of dna. I wonder how she might have come to this conclusion, being she was right.

One thing, we both come from cultures of tribes.Our history's highlight was the 12 tribes stemming from Jacob. The 12 sons became 12 tribes. Then we were left with only 2 as 10 were taken away by the Assyrians. Babylonians did their share later by taking away many of our people, some of which were able to return to us much later. Then again, I think all people started off in family groups that grew into tribes. Even Britain had tribes first. We've both done a lot of wandering. We were warriors.

Indians with Q haplogroup crossed the Bering Straits about 15,000 years ago in small groups from the colder climates of Siberia and north of the Altai Mts. They are found in the cold climates in the Na-Dene (50%) , Inuit, and Indigenous Alaskan areas (46%) down to many of the South American Indians. Their haplogroup has been Q1a3a1. They were the ones that first came to North America. Q M3 makes up 83% of South American Indians. Not all Indians bear this haplogroup, but most do. Others found are R1 and C3. 95% of Native Americans belong to one of these 3 groups.

23&Me, a dna company located in California, found that I have 0.23% of my genes from Asian sources and 99.77% from European sources. This was a test they have for native American genes. Being Jewish and not having any Native American ancestors that I know about recently, I think this reflects by Q Jewish ancestry.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
The Emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, just visited Gaza. He is the head of state, a powerful and rich man in his own right, and also great friends with Qaradawi, who has a fatwa out to kill all Jews and uses the TV networking of Al Jazeera to do so. Qaradawi was the religious leader that was outlawed in Egypt during Mubarak's time for being so radical in his religious views. Being a high level Muslim Brotherhood leader, he's now welcomed back with open arms and has spoken to the masses in Tahrir Square.

The Emir's visit brought about a jubilant celebration, of course. This is because he pledged $400 million in aid for roads, a new hospital and housing for Palestinian prisoners who have been or will be freed.

Iran had been the 'bank' for Hamas, terrorist czar of the Palestinians, but they stopped giving aid because Hamas decided to support the Syrian rebellion. Iran backs the Syrian Assad. He is Iran's flunky. Assad's Syria had been home to the Hamas' exiled leaders until earlier this year.

Now analysts think that Qatar's Emir's visit and donation is threatening to cause a crack between Hamas- ruled Gaza and Fatah-ruled Judea/Samaria because it shows that Hamas has more power and will never have a reason to settle issues with Israel. Yigal Palmor, Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman thinks that there are now 2 Palestinian states that won't even talk to each other.

Not living in Israel but a citizen anyway and seeing it from the outside, I disagree. I thought that Fatah and Hamas had joined hands and were 'married' to each other already. Have they divorced? Each may be trying to assert their independent roles, but they're united against Israel, at least. There hasn't been any show that I have noticed from information that they have turned away from their determination not to accept Israel in their midst, thus making peace. As far as I can see, they're still determined to wipe Israel off the map. It's part of their radical religious goals, sort of like an Islam Crusade. Their reasoning belongs in the 13th century, of course.

It may take a still yet younger generation who will have the guts to disagree with their elders and have the desire to live happily like other folk to bring about a change instead of being used as cannon ball fodder. I see it happening here in the states all the time. Children are always rebelling against their parents' stands, whether politically or culturally. If they see their parents' values as outmoded, outdated, and life threatening and don't want it, we may then see a peace treaty.

For the time being, I'm hoping that gaining an update in Gaza might cause the terrorists to not want to risk these improvements by angering Israel into bombing them to pieces. Pride in their homeland might mean they want to keep it in good shape. We'll see. So far they are eager to offer up as sacrifices their own children.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
A group of 4 caves near Haifa on the western slope of Mount Carmel were found to be home for Neanderthals and early anatomically modern humans who lived there 15,000 years ago. They lived side by side as part of the same culture. We're going back when humans evolved over a period of 500,000 years.

The caves have evidence of burials, early stone architecture and show how man went from the hunter to the gatherer lifestyle and on to agriculture and animal raising. They found remains of stone houses and pits which are evidence of a settlement.

It took 90 years of excavation of these sites to find all this evidence, so this must have started in about 1922. They hope to find more information. UNESCO says the site provides "an archive of early human life in southwest Asia."

This is now the 7th world Heritage Site in Israel, which is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's called the Nahal Me'arot Nature Reserve. This place provides a chronological framework when humans were developing.

Other sites are the Masada, the Old city of Akko and the White City of Tel Aviv.

Genetic studies show that modern Europeans have between 1% to 4 % of their genes from Neanderthals who died off 28,000 years ago.

Being Jewish and having the hobby of genealogy, one hits the stone wall in trying to go back very far, and it's been hard to find information on my father's line, so I have resorted to dna testing. Through 23& Me in California, I found out that my chromosomes showed that I had 2.9% of Neanderthal in my genes. I was in the 93% tile of my other matches! The average Eastern European only has 2.5% Lucky me! Through familytreedna in Houston, my brother was found to have the Q haplogroup of Ydna, Q1b1a to be specific or Q-L245, which looks like a mathematical equation of where we came from. At first we were led to believe this origin was from the Khazarian Empire, which lies close to Russia. Now with further testing, findings are showing that some of our group have the marker to be from somewhere close to Ur, which lies in today's Iraq. It's where our forefather, Abraham came from. I'm getting closer to those caves!

There are other famous caves with remains of Neanderthal man. One such cave is the Shanidar Cave in Iraq, of all places. Shanidar is the name of the elder male found there. Other caves of famous note are the La Ferrassie Caves in SW France and a cave in northern Spain, El Castillo, which goes back more than 40,800 years with a painting showing hands, and the hands must be handprints and they look exactly like ours today. It is the oldest ever found.

Being there are many caves scattered about the world that contained Neanderthals, I'm wondering if my friend, a geneticist PhD isn't right in his theory that man came from several sources and wasn't just from one single man. That brings up even more questions, like how did that happen?

I can't declare that these caves were our caves of origin, though. Our Q branch on the tree of man originally came from Siberia, Mongolia and parts of Turkey and we hooked up with Native Americans way back then who are on another Q twig. There must be caves that held similar development in those places as well. However, our twig had migrated towards the Middle East and evidently settled in somewhere there just in time for all the history to start taking place, like Abraham's family's move there. It looks like some stayed in Turkey. Our Q twig makes up 5% of the Jewish male population of today.

I'm so glad that I lived in Haifa from 1980-1981 when I made aliyah to Israel. It was there that I attended a 10 month long ulpan for teachers to retrain and work in Israel. It is such a beautiful city, on the Mediterranean Sea, and reminded me a little of Portland for that reason. At least I was able to walk to the beach and enjoy all the life there, from eating Shwarmas in the kiosks to the aromatic flowers of brilliant colors all in bloom. I just wish I knew about those caves! Hmmm, I wonder if my oil painting prowess isn't from my Neantherthal cousins!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
In today's political Middle East world, the Palestinians are busy proclaiming ownership of all of Israel by saying that from the 67 borders all belongs to them, and include Jerusalem in their claim to ownership.

After fighting with these Arabs who came into the Jewish territory looking for work ever since about 1880, sometimes way after Mark Twain's visit February 1, 1867 trip to the Holy Land and Egypt, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has calmly let us know that after the bloody fighting before and after 1948 and which still goes on in southern Israel, enough time has gone by in coming to a peaceful decision. 1967 was a turning point when all the Arab nations ganged up on Israel and attacked, and who won the onslaught? Israel did. In that win, we gained, without originally attacking or planning to, East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

The Palestinians have wanted East Jerusalem as their capital of their future Palestine. That would never have worked. It's bad enough they are right in Gaza shooting constantly at southern Israel daily. Israel removed its Jewish population from there in the name of peace, and Gaza turned out to be a piece of land they could shoot at us from. East Jerusalem would have meant the same thing, no doubt. Lately the Palestinians have come out to say that they intend to take all of Israel, so we might as well call it quits on the chance that they are for peaceful negotiations. Israel is now 64 years old. It's been a good 45 years since the 67 War. The Palestinians have only become greedier and far more dangerous than ever. Israel has 1.4 million Arabs that are citizens. Many of them are living right in East Jerusalem.

Since then, Jerusalem is again a whole city where all can visit freely without reprisals. Netanyahu has seen a need for building projects there and approved 800 new homes in the southern neighborhood of Gilo. Nir Barkat, mayor of Jerusalem, looks forward to more people living there with lower rent prices. I imagine these will be in the form of sky high apartment buildings like what I lived in in Safed. Most all of Israel's residential quarters are in apartment building because it's a teeny tiny state. There are 300,000 Arabs living in 19 Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Arabs in Israel come from the Bedouins, Druze and Christians as well as others.

Netanyahu told his cabinet that Jerusalem is our capital and Israel is not imposing any restrictions on building in it. The European Union has criticized Israel for not waiting for another 64 years before building a thing on their own property, I suppose. They forget, probably never read about the fact that it was King David of Israel who was responsible for building the city up in the first place. David had captured it in 1010 BCE when it became the capital of a united Israel. Just read in Samuel II, 5: 6-8: I chron. 11: 4-6. David had dealt leniently with the Jebusites, but established himself in the city, adding the fortress of Zion and also a "House of Heroes" for his guard. He constructed a tomb inside the city for himself and his family. He also had the Ark of the Covenant kept there and made Jerusalem the religious center of Israel, and it was also the capital of his empire that reached from the Red Sea to the Euphrates.

His son Solomon also added to its treasury. After the Assyrians and then the Babylonians had had their way with Judea and Israel, Jerusalem finally fell to the Romans in 70 CE. We've waited quite patiently to return. After being accepted into the world's nations on May 14, 1948, we're still proving our rights. A recent report by 3 Israeli legal judges headed by former High Court Justice Edmund Levy, concluded that Jews have a legal right to live in all of the land restored to the country in the Six-Day War in 1967. It said the term "occupied territory" is wrong. We're not "occupiers."

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated that "Jerusalem is not a settlement!" After over 3,000 years of existence, our modern world diplomats were actually referring to it as such. Israel has now set a "red line" that strikes the capital from any negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. I am ecstatic! It's about time! The EU is plotzing and I imagine the USA is as well, but Israel has been knocked about too much as it is. It's been the nice guy for so long and no one appreciates it. Today's Israel is but a crumb of the original size of the Holy Land, yet there are those trying to take away our legalized UN signed crumb!

Resource: Arutz Sheva: Netanyahu Rejects EU: No Limits on Building in Jerusalem by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=288660
The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain-
http://jcpa.org/article/what-do-the-arabs-of-east-jerusalem-really-want/
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia on Jerusalem
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/252438
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

There will soon be a meeting with the OSCE's annual Human Rights conference put on through the United Nations in Warsaw, Poland.

What was the United Nations created for? “The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to carry out its missions.”

It honored Israel’s creation by voting for its admission into the world of nations. What has it done for her since? Sit back and watch her being attacked incessantly. Today, some of these organizations would like to see the destruction of this tiny Democratic Jewish state as it differs in religion and politics with its neighbors, even though 1.4 million Muslims are citizens and are enjoying a Democratic lifestyle that certainly differs from their neighbors. Many of the very nations at the top of the Human Right agenda are nations against Israel.

In order for nations to learn to live together in peace, Way back in 1391-1271 BCE, G-d gave them through Moses, 10 commandments so they would have something to evaluate themselves with and to know just exactly what to do to be civilized. These ways of conducting our behavior are a good 3,400 years old, now, but I see that people still are having a hard time accepting them. .

According to our tradition, G-d offered all of the commandments to all the people of the earth and the Jews were the only ones to accept the total package of ten including 613 more you haven’t even heard of. Our story is that we wound up accepting all ten because we were the lowliest of nations and our successes in life would be attributed to G-d’s might and not our own ability. Jews may be the chosen people, but chosen to carry a very heavy burden to light the way. It seems to me that the most important commandment as far as the UN is concerned in their responsibilities to world order is #10. Israel, out of all the nations, tries to follow these laws.

Starting with #10: the Prohibition of Coveting. This means not to want things belonging to your neighbor. Israel spent many years in meetings in order to create The Jewish Homeland, Israel. They did it legally through the United Nations. The land was deserted and barren, waiting for their return. The whole world has been guilty of breaking this law since time began by attacking other nations in wanting what they have produced. It’s going on right now between the Palestinians and Israel. The Palestinians have warred ever since Israel came to be established on May 14, 1948 and was accepted as a state in good standing by the United Nations.. The Palestinians haven’t stopped their attacks on Israel. They want Israel, all of it. That’s coveting. They are the aggressors. It doesn’t count to strike back at people who try to kill you as Israel has had to do. They are defending their people and their lives.

#9: Harming a person through speech. YOU ARE TO ESTABLISH COURTS OF JUSTICE; This is going on all the time. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor and this includes saying lies about your neighbor. Iran is so guilty of this, denying that Jews were ever in the land. This includes propaganda that is slanderous. It’s part and parcel of war against your neighbor. Goldstone finally did admit, ““Israel has a right of self-defense to protect its citizens against attacks. If more rockets had landed on kindergartens, the consequences would have been quite horrendous.” Today schools in southern Israel must have portable bomb shelters as they are hit so often. Right now the people of southern Israel cannot go 15 seconds away from a bomb shelter. In the much biased report that Goldstone handed into the UN, he harmed Israel tremendously by his sloppy and one sided report against Israel. Though he has gone back and admitted he was wrong in his findings, he has done irreparable harm to Israel. Her enemies refuse to read the edited edition. He still has a ways to go and admitted lack of staff. “Goldstone defended his commission during a nearly one-hour question and answer session, saying he was limited in staff, time and resources. He also expressed dismay that Israeli government and military officials refused to cooperate with him.” When Israel found itself accused of premeditated war crimes, it was shocked. It considered fighting that charge a priority. Israel had found it unbelievable that nations could not understand that after being tortured with shelling for so many years since 2001 that it did not have the right to protect itself and put a stop to such shelling.

The Asia Pacific States serving are : India, Indonesia (86.1% Muslim), Kuwait (85% Muslim), Malaysia (60.4% Muslim), Maldives (100% Muslim), Qatar(77.5% Muslim), Philippines and Thailand with Bangladesh, China, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan and Saudi Arabia’s period up 2012.. Possible replacements for them are Japan, Kazakhstan (70.2% Muslim), Pakistan (97% Muslim), Korea and United Arab Emirates (76% Muslim). The United States is sending a representative who is Muslim and is the head of Muslim affairs in the USA, Salam Al Marayati, and he had accused Israel of being a possible suspect in 9/11's atrocity in NYC. I'd say that he is already narrow minded in his outlook about Israel's problems.

Hope is that other countries on the committee will be more responsive to actual facts as the Muslim states all stick together. .

#8. Theft, you shall not steal. NOT TO COMMIT ROBBERY; This includes outright robbery and stealing by deception and unethical business practices, kidnapping people included. So many people have broken this one. Even in wartime, it is not right to kidnap soldiers, which has happened to Gilad Shalit of Israel when he was held through kidnapping. Nothing was done to help Israel in this situation, either.

3,400 year old laws that the United Nations has not been able to address and help out the oldest people on earth, the Jewish people, in three of the basic ten that are so important to countries.
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Reference: http://www.jewfaq.org/10.htm
http://www.jewfaq.org/gentiles.htm#Noah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/Judaism/Article.aspx?id=197688
http://thejewishchronicle.net/view/full_story/12146909/article-Goldstone-defends-Gaza-report--Israel%E2%80%99s-right-to-self-defense-in-Berkeley-talk-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/world/middleeast/24goldstone.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.un.org/en/ga/67/meetings/elections/hrc.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim-majority_countries
Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad"
From Time Immemorial by Joan Petershttp://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/262581-moral-israel-in-an-immoral-middle-east

Monday, October 15, 2012

Nadene Goldfoot
I’m getting tired proving Israel’s right to exist to people who prefer to think the worst about Jews, and Israel was created as a Jewish state-the Jewish Homeland. To accept Israel's right to exist is to be a Zionist. Zion was the ideal nation or society envisaged by Judaism; the synonym of heaven or Utopia. That's what our forefathers envisioned for their new state. Three times is the charm. Israel was a state way back in the Bible days along with a 2nd Jewish state, Judea. After Romans attacked in 70 CE, Jews lost their state of Judea though many continued to live within the 2 states. The rest were scattered throughout the world. Jews have wandered and suffered for 2,000 years culminating in their close extinction with 6 million killed. Today there are 1.4 million Arabs that are also citizens of Israel. Their forefathers did not turn on Israel and run when Israel was attacked by all the surrounding Arab nations. They stayed, helped, and became part of us. They're in the Knesset, our schools, our neighbors and friends. Some even fight with us in our army.

After much work in years of meetings with Great Britain, who held a mandate over the former land of Israel, Jews were promised their old land back to form a new Jewish Homeland. Consequences came to be that the English also promised land to the Arabs as well. Results were that Jews were given a small fraction of what was originally planned for them

The Arabs’ attitude first off was of acceptance and excitement of what Jews could do for the neglected land to that of being incensed and not capable of accepting their “cousins” back home and has been that of constant war even before Israel’s new birth May 14, 1948. They have denied their people the historic facts that brought about Israel. They even deny that Jews today are the descendants of Jews in the past while yet denying the historic past. Israel has had to endure many attacks and has come out the victor in wars reminiscent of David and Goliath. Now the Arabs and world have convinced themselves that Israel doesn’t even have the right to land lost by the attackers, which is Judea and Samaria, though Arabs still live there and govern themselves with provisos not to attacks Israelis. . Giving up the land of Gaza has only given these bullies a place to attack Israel.. Whether we take it or give it, the results are the same; unacceptance of our existence. And why? Because so much of the world goes along with their insanity. It’s the tired man’s way out.

As traumatic the event was when Moses received the 10 Commandments on Mt. Sinai resulting in Jews having a strong will to keep their faith against Christianity and Islam, the World Wars I and II seem to have changed the makeup of Europeans. They lack the energy to fight off aggressiveness they had in the past during the advancing empires trying to take over the world. They have caved into pressures and are taking the least resistance of political powers as seen in UN meetings.. After what they had endured, it can be understood, so it has brought about the European Union with good and bad points. Something that started out as good for their common economy which is now going through debate, it is creating a unified attitude that seems to be against Israel’s right to exist, an existence already decided that Israel had been accepted by the UN. That seems to be a forgotten fact today with the present rulers of the exalted group.

Much of Europe and even parts of our USA government are caving into pressures of the Arabs of Islam to do away with Israel. Instead of standing up to Israel’s right to exist, they kowtow to the rich oil states in agreements and bows, which only make them weaker in the eyes of the Arabs.

This beautiful planet’s nations have debased themselves to be like Sodom and Gomorrah. What is it going to take to save this planet from going up in atomic smoke? For people who have lost the ability to tell right from wrong, I think it won’t happen until it affects them personally.

So I say to my Muslim friends outside of Israel, instead of finding fault with Israelis, why not tell the Palestinians to accept Israel in their midst and to get along and work together. What have they done to improve the world in their nations? They accept the fact that they can kill each other but scream bloody heck if Israel defends itself against the offenses from their people.

About Me

I'm the American Nadene Goldfoot. Another lives in England. I'm the one who went to Israel and lived there from 1980 to the end of 1985. I'm an amateur genealogist for our family who also has expanded interests into dna. I now spend my time writing in my 3 blogs teaching about Israel and defending her position.

On my tree I have found Rabbi Samson Wertheimer, RASHI, and King David through DNA testing. Another branch holds the kings and queens of England by genealogy. When current events become deplorable, I turn to this hobby for a lift. It's all whetted my appetite for ancient history of Israel.